JP Lindsley | Journalist Profile picture
Aug 15 15 tweets 6 min read Read on X
1/ 🧵 💥 7 Ways the World Got Better After Russia Lost Crimea — the FIRST Time

Number one: 🇺🇸 ALASKA BECAME AMERICAN 🧵⤵️ Image
2/ THE CONTEXT — The Crimean War, 1853–1856:

Britain, France, Sardinia, & the Ottomans united to stop Russia from dominating the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Russia lost everything—and Crimea, though still in the empire, was demilitarized.⤵️Image
3/ AND TODAY…

Trump and Putin are meeting in Alaska—to negotiate on Ukraine—with Crimea again as a fulcrum.

The irony? The last time Russia lost Crimea, it was so broke it sold Alaska to the U.S.

Here’s how the world gained from the 1856 defeat of the Russian War Machine ⤵️Image
4/🇺🇸 #1 — ALASKA BECAME AMERICAN

In 1867, broke Russia sold Alaska to the USA for $7.2m, ~$150m today.

While many Russians still lack indoor plumbing, today every Alaskan receives an annual dividend from the state's oil revenue. A win for Alaskans!⤵️Image
5/⛓️ #2 — 23 MILLION SERFS WERE FREED

With no money for foreign wars, Tsar Alexander II faced Russia’s domestic rot: serfdom.

1861: 23 million serfs emancipated.

When dictators can’t distract with war, they must fix what’s broken domestically. ⤵️Image
6/🚢 #3 — THE BLACK SEA WAS LIBERATED.

The 1856 Treaty of Paris barred Russia from keeping any warships in the Black Sea.

Results:
⦿ Trade doubled
⦿ Food prices stabilized
⦿ Mediterranean commerce flourished

Fifteen years without a Russian navy = 15 years of prosperity. ⤵️Image
7/🏥 #4 — MODERN NURSING WAS BORN

British nurse Florence Nightingale, tending to the wounded allies, transformed battlefield care through Crimean War sanitation reforms—cutting death rates from 42% to 2%—and creating the profession of modern nursing. ⤵️Image
8/📰 #5 — THE PUBLIC DEMANDED BETTER STRATEGY

With telegraph & photography, officials could not hide the truth.

Britons read about the wasteful Charge of the Light Brigade before the war was over—and demanded smarter leadership for victory, not a forever war.

📸same scene⤵️Image
Image
9/🕌 #6 — CRIMEAN TATARS FREED, BRIEFLY

Crimean Tatars—freed from Russian militarization—found space to revive culture and language, echoing the 19th-century spirit of freedom-loving nationalism that opposed imperial war machines ⤵️Image
10/🎸 #7 — CRIMEA INSPIRED MODERN ROCK

In 1856, Ohio guitar teacher Henry Worrall wrote "Vestapol," inspired by news of the Allied victory over Russia at Sevastopol.

The piece popularized open D tuning—the foundation of blues, country, and rock.

⤵️
11/⚠️ THE TERRIFYING PATTERN

Unless roundly defeated, Russia creeps back.

In 1856, Russia lost Crimea’s military use.

But in 1870, it tore up the Treaty of Paris, rebuilt its Black Sea fleet, and remilitarized Sevastopol. ⤵️Image
12/ 📖 WARNINGS IGNORED

In the 1872, Dostoevsky’s novel Demons said Russia’s political soul was possessed.

In 1917, three Portuguese shepherd kids in Fatima said that the Virgin Mary had warned them of Russia’s evil.

Months later, the Bolsheviks unleashed hell. ⤵️Image
Image
13/🕌 CRIMEA AS A WEAPON, AGAIN

In 1944, Stalin deported all Crimean Tatars—nearly 200,000 people—to Central Asia in just 72 hours.

In 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and now uses the peninsula as a choke point to threaten trade, peace, and freedom across Europe.⤵️Image
14/📜 TREATY OF MAR-A-LAGO?

1856: The Treaty of Paris ended the Crimean War and stripped Russia’s military grip on Crimea.

2025: Imagine a new treaty—returning strategic Crimea to the safe, trustworthy hands of Ukraine and the West.

Can the demons be stopped this time? ⤵️Image
15/ I'm the only American reporting from Ukraine every single day of Russia's full-scale invasion.

"JP Lindsley is the best American journalist covering Ukraine. A conservative, and immune to any sort of propaganda. Truly outstanding journalism."

— @WGNRadio listener 🧵🎬Image

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More from @JPLindsley

Aug 14
1/🧵 A Ukrainian soldier races his truck toward the frontline in total darkness.

He kills the headlights, switches to night-vision goggles, and warns his passengers:

If we stop for ANY reason, don't grab your gear—just run for the trees.

Welcome to the drone war. 🧵⤵️Image
2/ One of those passengers is war reporter David Kirichenko, (@DVKirichenko) embedded with Ukraine's 110th Brigade drone unit.

For the UK's @LBC, he's documenting the "drone wall" holding back Russian forces.

I want to share with you the wild things he witnessed ⤵️ Image
3/ These drone units make up just 2% of Ukraine's personnel—but account for one-third of Russian casualties.

The roads to reach them look "torn from Mad Max": Vehicles crawl under makeshift cages and welded plating. The kill zone now extends 10-15km from the front. ⤵️ Image
Read 11 tweets
Aug 13
1/ 🚨 LEAKED: A ceasefire that gives Ukrainian land + resources to Russia would also free Russia's military for Putin's next act—

Supercharging China for Taiwan invasion.

Freshly-leaked Russian defense documents reveal the chilling prep already underway. 🧵⤵️ Image
2/ The leaked documents, via the credible @blackmoon_group, show just a slice of what's happening—but the picture is clear:

Russian War Machine firms are training Chinese troops.

It's all tailored for the amphibious assault Taiwan fears but which should also scare the West ⤵️ Image
3/ A Ukraine ceasefire that gifts Russia land + resources doesn't buy peace—it enables the next war.

Ukraine's semiconductor material: captured
Moscow's military bandwidth: freed

Next target: Taiwan, maker of 90% of semiconductors

Beijing-Moscow would control global tech.⤵️ Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 12
1/ Ukraine has become the world's most intense military tech laboratory.

Not in Silicon Valley boardrooms or Big Defense labs—but in active combat zones where developers test innovations under fire and iterate in weeks, not years.

Here are 7 amazing machines 🧵⤵️ Image
2/ In a forest glen, 70+ Ukrainian defense companies gathered to unveil battle-tested tech at IRON DEMO 2025 near Lviv.

If you believe in well-armed freedom, this was the place to be. Thanks to @DefenderMediaUA, we've got an inside view.

Let's go! ⤵️ Image
3/ The Karakurt, or Black Widow, from IRV: a tracked robot that launches 6 FPV drones remotely

Operators stay hidden far away while this platform deploys kamikaze drones with a 30km range. The twist? It can launch 2 drones simultaneously at the same target. ⤵️Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 12
1/ Friday’s Alaska summit could change the course of the war.

From Kyiv, I’ve spotted a subtle but HUGE shift in Trump’s language on Russia —

—one that could absolutely flip America’s view of Ukraine 👇🧵⤵️ Image
2/ For 3 years, I’ve been the only American reporting live daily from Ukraine—on @WGNRadio.

Now I’ve launched a weekly video report—depth & context from the ground.

📺 Watch Ep. 1 here — or read along for insights, illustrated by @neivanmade:

⤵️
3/ Kyiv’s skies have been strangely quiet for a week — after a month of the heaviest bombing of the war.

But Russia is still hitting “less famous” cities like Zaporizhzhia (📸), hoping Trump won’t hear about it.

It's seriously often that simple. ⤵️ Image
Read 12 tweets
Aug 12
1/ Ukraine once made half the world’s supply of the gas that powers every advanced chip.

Now Russia holds part of it, China makes most of the rest—and together they’re on the verge of controlling a global tech chokehold.

The gas? Neon. Here’s why it matters 🧵⤵️ Image
2/ While Trump and Zelenskyy ride their emotional rollercoaster, China and Russia are quietly making moves on Ukraine’s hidden tech lifeline for the world.

It’s about neon, yes, but it's most about brilliant human resources falling into War Machine hands ⤵️ Image
3/ Why neon matters:

Deep-UV lithography—the tech that etches circuits into silicon wafers—runs on gas mixes that are 90–95% neon.

No substitute. And it must be 99.999% pure.

From TSMC to Intel, everyone needs it. ⤵️ Image
Read 11 tweets
Aug 11
1/ Ukraine has an invisible wall that kills Russian drones with math.

It's 1,500 kilometers long, weighs nothing, and operates on frequencies that change by the hour.

Against invading drones, Ukrainians are building an adaptable protective ecosystem 🧵⤵️
2/ David Kirichenko (@DVKirichenko), reporting for @EuromaidanPress, goes inside Ukraine's secret electronic warfare bunkers, where, 24/7, operators are jamming the jammable among Russia's killer drones—while allowing Ukrainian drones to carry on ⤵️

euromaidanpress.com/2025/08/10/whe…
3/ Meet Vladyslav, callsign "Vitamin."

From a narrow underground dugout, he monitors a system called "Damba," or dam, that disrupts Russian FPV drones mid-flight.

The process requires constant adjusting, as the Russians are always changing frequencies to evade jamming ⤵️ Image
Read 11 tweets

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